Former NU student faces man who raped her in her dorm room: 'At what point did you decide I was unworthy of human respect?'

Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune

The entrance gate on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston in 2017.

The entrance gate on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston in 2017. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune)

Brian L. CoxChicago Tribune

A former Northwestern University student wept as she faced the man who sexually assaulted her in her Evanston dorm room six years ago, telling him the assault left her emotionally devastated and at her lowest point contemplating suicide.

Speaking Friday at the man’s sentencing, she said, “I want to ask the defendant: Why? At what point did you decide that I was unworthy of basic human respect? At what point in time did you decide my physical autonomy did not matter?”

Dabbing her eyes with a tissue, she continued: “At what point in time did you decide to rape me?”

Pablo Herrera, a 33-year-old West Chicago man, was sentenced to six years in prison for criminal sexual assault.

During the trial last spring, the woman, now 27, testified that she met Herrera several months before the assault and that the two communicated over social media before deciding to meet up and go to a few clubs in Chicago. Later that night, she said she agreed to let him sleep on the floor of her room at Foster-Walker residence hall on campus.

She said Herrera approached her while she slept and assaulted her, despite her telling him firmly several times to stop. He eventually did, telling her she was “lucky because some of his friends wouldn’t have stopped,” the woman testified.

At the sentencing in Cook County’s Skokie branch court Friday, the woman said that in the months and years after the assault, her life fell apart and, at one of her lowest points, she collapsed onto the floor of her apartment trying to determine if she had enough medication, prescribed to her after the assault, to take her own life.

“It was near the end of the month, and I was angry that I didn’t have enough,” she said.

“In the aftermath of the assault, I grappled with life itself, especially in those moments when I felt I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said. “I grappled with my feelings of self-esteem, self-worth, shame and fear as everything around me and in my own mind became a reminder of what happened.”

Now an attorney, the woman said that despite the long legal process and her ongoing emotional struggles, she is glad she reported the crime.

“This avenue, through the hoops, hurdles and delays of a clunky criminal justice system, is the only way to hold those who hurt others officially accountable for their actions,” she said.

Herrera did not address the court during the hearing and looked down as the victim spoke. But his fiancee and his mother-in-law testified on his behalf, calling him a good father and a nice person with friends and family who liked him.

Judge Lauren Edidin said as she handed down the sentence: “He pursued her. He used his experience to prey on her. He violated her. Those were his actions. His choices.”

Prosecutors said Herrera will have to serve at least 85 percent of the six-year sentence and will have to register as a sex offender for life.